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Bush Legs, or Chicken in the Soviet Bloc Countries

A listener who grew up in Ukraine recalls that her family always referred to chicken drumsticks by a name that translates as Bush’s legs. This jocular term refers to an agreement between U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev struck in 1990, during a time of scarcity in the Soviet Union. The agreement called for frozen chicken to be sent from the United States to help stock empty store shelves. Years earlier, under the Lend-Lease program, powdered eggs sent to Russia came to be known by a Russian name that translates as Roosevelt’s eggs.  This is part of a complete episode.

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